Re: [Hampshire] Basic Ubuntu question

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Author: Hugo Mills
Date:  
To: Hampshire LUG Discussion List
Subject: Re: [Hampshire] Basic Ubuntu question

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On Thu, Feb 08, 2007 at 11:19:01AM -0000, Rob Malpass wrote:
> I now run Ubuntu for most of my Linux stuff and I'm a bit confused by this
> Breezy badger / warty warthog etc.
>
> I know that an Ubuntu version (e.g. 6.06) corresponds to a codename like
> badger (though not sure if 6.06 actually = badger), but what I need to know
> is:
> 1) When I run the updates (as it asks me to every time I login), does this
> then mean I have the latest distrb (whatever it's called now)? Or would I
> have the latest distrib if I ran apt-get dist-upgrade?


The only difference between upgrade and dist-upgrade is that the
former will only upgrade packages that already exist on your system,
and the latter will pull in additional packages if the prerequisites
for something have changed[1]. Prerequisites usually only change
between different releases, hence the "dist-upgrade" name.

You can find out which version apt will take its packages from by
looking at /etc/apt/sources.list. The distribution name should be
obvious from that file (it's the third space-separated field in the
file -- after the "deb" and the URL).

> 2) How do I find out the codename (or the version for that matter) of the
> distrib I have?


Most Linux systems will give you the version of the distribution in
the file /etc/issue. This should match the values in
/etc/apt/sources.list (unless you've changed sources.list and haven't
done an upgrade yet).

Hugo.

[1] Example: Say you have a package foo installed, which depends on a
library libfoo. The author changes both foo and libfoo to fix a bug.
apt-get upgrade will then upgrade foo and libfoo.

Then the author adds a new feature to foo, which requires a new
library, libbar. So, the package foo has changed, and new requires
libbar to be installed as well (assume that libfoo is unchanged).
apt-get upgrade will do nothing, as in order to upgrade foo, it would
also have to install libbar, which you don't have on your system.
Running apt-get dist-upgrade will upgrade foo, and install libbar as a
new package, in order to fulfil the prerequisites for the new version.

-- 
=== Hugo Mills: hugo@... carfax.org.uk | darksatanic.net | lug.org.uk ===
  PGP key: 1C335860 from wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net or http://www.carfax.org.uk
  --- Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle, ---  
                           and quick to anger.